FactCheck: Obama, Romney health care claims

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By ABC7

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You're going to be hearing a lot of these same false claims about the health care law in this election season and you've some of them before. Let's start with the president:

"If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance. This law will only make it more secure and more affordable," President Obama said.

FactCheck: That's not completely true. Most American's have their health insurance plans through their work and companies will be free to switch coverage plans just like they can now. They can even drop their health insurance coverage, though they'd have to pay a $2,000 per employee tax for doing that.

Now, let's take a look at what Mitt Romney said:

"Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion. Obamacare cuts Medicare, cuts Medicare, by approximately $500 billion."

FactCheck: On taxes, Romney left out the fact that most of the money would be coming from people making more than $200,000 a year and that a large majority of Americans wouldn't see any direct tax increase. On cuts to Medicare, the law doesn't cut the current Medicare budget by $500 billion. It reduces the growth of Medicare by $500 billion over the next 10 years. Medicare spending will still increase, just not as much.

FactCheck: That's not accurate. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the law will reduce the federal deficit by $210 billion over the next 10 years and as ABC7 News reported Thursday, Romney's claim that the health care law is a job killer doesn't stand up. Neither does the president's claim that 13 million Americans are going to get a rebate from their insurance companies.

ABC7 News partners at Factcheck.org have done a complete analysis of both the president's claims and those of Mitt Romney. Click here to read the report.